Back in 1991, East Bay bluesman Mark Hummel called on some of his fellow local harmonicats to help him put on a show at Ashkenaz in Berkeley. It wasn’t anything fancy — just a killer showcase for the mouth harp.

And people loved it.

“The club owner, David Nadel, came up to me and said, ‘Man, this went really good. Let’s do it again next year. Let’s do it every year,'” remembers Hummel, a Castro Valley resident who lived in Berkeley at the time. “And that’s how the ball got rolling.”

That ball is now known as Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blowout, which has become one of the most cherished annual events on the blues music calendar. What began as a one-night stand, performed in front of approximately 150 people, has grown to where Hummel expects to put on 30 to 40 Blowout shows across the nation this year, including a six-show, three-night stand at Yoshi’s in Oakland — Jan. 14-16 — as well as one gig on Jan. 18 at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz.

“I never would have guessed this thing would go the way it has gone,” says Hummel, a 55-year-old Southern California native. He credits its success to luck and the fact that he’s “been able to maintain some type of a vision with these shows.”

That vision starts with trying to snag as many of the best harmonica players available. Over the years, the Blowout has featured some of the biggest names in harp history, including John Mayall, Huey Lewis and James Cotton. The 2011 edition brings Rod Piazza, a mainstay in the Bay Area music scene, former Rolling Stones accompanist Sugar Blue, Grammy Award winner Billy Branch, Cuban-born harmonica sensation Carlos Del Junco (performing only at the Oakland dates) and, of course, Hummel.

Another factor is that Hummel tries to shoehorn in as much musical diversity as possible to these showcases.

“It is real easy for this thing to become Little Walter night,” says Hummel, referencing the most influential of the Chicago blues harpists. “Having (a different kind of harmonica player like) Lee Oskar or Norton Buffalo in there does change things up and make for an interesting night.”

Hummel seems particularly pleased with the diversity in this year’s Blowout, noting that Del Junco, Blue and Branch are diversely talented players who share little in common with Piazza, Hummel or most traditional blues harmonicats that the public might recognize.

“If you are a harmonica fan at all, it’s really going to be a very entertaining show because you are going to see all these types of different kinds of players — all at a very high level,” he says.

Bay Area bound

Hummel first began playing harmonica in high school, picking the instrument over the more common choice — the guitar.

“The harmonica, for some reason, just really captivated me,” he says. “I think there was a mystery to it, in that you can’t really see what somebody is doing when they are playing the harmonica — it’s all behind the hands. As soon as I heard people play the harmonica through the amplifier, that was it for me.”

Not long after graduating from high school in the early ’70s, Hummel moved to Berkeley. One of the attractions, he says, was that the Bay Area scene seemed more “open” to different styles of music than the one in Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles has always been such a trendy city,” he says. “If I said Muddy Waters or James Cotton or Paul Butterfield up here, people would know who I was talking about. Whereas in L.A., those people were considered underground.”

He came to the Bay Area with the goal of making it as a blues musician. First, however, he’d have to pay his dues.

“I was playing on the streets initially,” he remembers. “Then I eventually found my way into the blues clubs in the ghettos, in both Oakland and Richmond.”

By 1981, Hummel was getting enough gigs to afford devoting himself to music full time. A few years after that, Hummel and his group — the Blues Survivors, now the backing band at all Blowouts — went on the road.

He put out his first CD as a bandleader, “Playin’ in Your Town,” in 1985. Since then, he’s remained quite busy in the studio — especially of late. He released an album in 2010 (“Retro-Active”), one already in 2011 (“Back Porch Music — Hummel Unplugged”) and plans to have another (a jazz offering) on shelves before year’s end.

Still, Hummel remains best known for his annual harmonica showcases. He’s OK with that, especially since these Blowouts have done so much to strengthen the fan base for blues harmonica music.

“The people who show up to these shows — a lot of them seem to have stumbled upon it by accident,” Hummel says.” “Like some friend says, ‘Man, you got to check this out.’ And that’s how they become converts.”

Here’s a look at the performers who will join Hummel onstage this year:ROD PIAZZA: He’s been working the blues music scene since the early ’60s, having signed a recording contract with ABC Bluesway while still a teen. He’s always backed by top-notch bands — including his latest unit, the Mighty Flyers. He’ll perform at the Blowout, as usual, with his piano-playing wife, Honey, at his side. “He’s a hell of a harmonica player,” Hummel says. “But I think his real strength is that he is a really confident performer.”SUGAR BLUE: “Discovered” playing mouth harp in a Paris subway by Keith Richards, Blue became widely known for his work with the Rolling Stones. He was featured on three Stones albums — “Some Girls,” “Emotional Rescue” and “Tattoo You.” His defining moment can be found in the Stones’ hit single “Miss You.”CARLOS DEL JUNCO: The Cuban-born Canadian resident, who records for the Northern Blues label, is a two-time winner of the Hohner championships at the Hohner World Harmonica Festival. He’s known for his “overblowing” technique — a way of bending every note on a diatonic harmonica — which he learned from Howard Levy (of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones). BILLY BRANCH: This Grammy Award-winning Chicagoan keeps mighty good company. Notably, he was featured on Alligator Records’ “Harp Attack” record, which also included efforts by such legends as James Cotton, Junior Wells and Carey Bell. “He’s just got a ridiculous resume,” Hummel says. “He’s probably been on 200 sessions out of Chicago.”

Jim Harrington is the pop music critic for the Bay Area News Group. He began writing about the Bay Area music scene in 1992 and became the full-time pop music critic for the organization's Oakland Tribune in 2006. He is a South Bay native and graduate of San Francisco State University.

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